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Blow,
winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanes, spout...
Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain! (King Lear,
Act III, Scene 2)
July
18, 2007: Shakespeare's King Lear shouted to the
heavens for a thunderstorm to vent its fury on him. A team
of NASA scientists is hoping for precisely the same thing.
They'd like a few really furious thunderstorms to come their
way -- but not for Lear's dark purposes.
 "We
have a lot to learn about thunderstorms, and we'd like to
study some at close range," says Michael Goodman, an
atmospheric scientist from the Marshall Space Flight Center.
"There's growing evidence that thunderstorms might play
a role in climate change." But
how? That is the question.
Right:
A thunderstorm near the Weikersheim Observatory in southern
Germany, June 2007. Photo credit: Jens Hackmann.
To
find out, a team of researchers (Goodman included) are in
Costa Rica this summer for a NASA-sponsored storm science
campaign called Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling
-- TC4 for short. Like Lear himself, the scientists of TC4
will exhort the heavens to unleash their fury and, in the
process, open themselves up to study.
Some
thunderstorms are so violent they pump air more than 60,000
feet above Earth's surface, punching through a layer of atmosphere
called the tropopause all the way into the stratosphere: diagram.
TC4 pilots will fly in and around the tropopause to discover
what kinds of particles are thrown up by thunderstorms and what
the effect might be.
The
team will also examine icy cirrus clouds that form when thunderstorms
reach the tropopause. Cirrus clouds spread like a light blanket
over a wide area, reflecting sunlight and cooling the Earth
below. On the other hand, cirrus clouds also absorb infrared
radiation coming from Earth. This "trapping" of
infrared energy creates a warming effect. Particles catapulted
upward by strong storms may cause changes in these icy clouds,
upsetting the balance of cooling vs. warming. The
net effect on Earth's energy budget? To be determined.
TC-4
researchers have many tools at their disposal: several NASA
satellites, three NASA aircraft (the ER-2, WB-57, and DC-8),
weather radars and a number of meteorological balloons. Each
has a key role to play in piecing together the storm's "big
picture," gathering data on lightning, water vapor, wind
speed, infrared emissions, dust particles, carbon monoxide
and more.
Above:
The DC-8 with scientific instruments labeled. [More]
Most
exciting are the airplanes. NASA's DC-8 seats about 35 researchers
– that is, if they'll actually sit down. It seems they have
a tendency to mill about and talk to one another inside the
plane, swaying back and forth across the aisle.
What's
it like to be among this passel of curious scientists as the
plane bumps through a raging storm?
"When
you are flying on the plane in the storm, you can look out
of the window, and all the scientists are talking back and
forth about the experiment--it's very exciting," says
researcher and veteran flyer Robbie Hood of the Marshall Space
Flight Center. "But there have been times when I wanted
to be sitting at my desk, because I was wishing to see the
satellite or radar picture at that moment."
If
she flies in the DC-8 during the TC4 field campaign, her wish
will come true. What makes this experiment a step up from
previous weather experiments is a new tool called Real Time
Mission Monitor, or RTMM. Developed at the Marshall Space
Flight Center, RTMM assembles data from the whole armada of
satellites and sensors and displays the big picture in living
color for researchers on the plane to see. Scientists on the
ground can see the display, too, and they will all be chatting
with one another via instant messaging.
Above:
A screenshot of RTMM displaying a July 17, 2007, flight of
the NASA DC-8 through a Central American thunderstorm. Image
credit: NASA/Michael Goodman. [Larger
image]
"I
think this tool will spark people's imaginations," says
Hood. "When you are looking at live data, you see things
differently than you when you look at the data two weeks later
at your desk. And when you have a lot of scientists focusing
on something together in real time, it sparks imagination,
conversation and collaboration. It will speed the way we make
discoveries."
So
these scientists will be brainstorming inside a storm.
"Spit, fire! Spout, rain!" Let the rumbling begin.
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Author: Dauna Coulter| Editor:
Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
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Information |
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Credits:
The Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters is sponsoring
the TC4 mission. Costa Rica's National Center for High
Technology, San Jose, and the University of Panama, Las
Tablas, are cooperating with NASA on the mission, as are
other US agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and the National Science Foundation. Click
here for a more detailed list of participants.
TC4
Home Page -- maintained by NASA's Earth Science
Projects Office at NASA Ames
NASA's
Future: The
Vision for Space Exploration
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